Housing availability and affordability are some of the biggest problems low income individuals are facing in Carbon County, the homeless task force reports.

During the group’s meeting last week, members talked about what they are seeing in the population of those facing eviction and keeping a roof of their heads.

Kim Miller, executive director of the Carbon County Action Committee, said that while overseeing homeless prevention programs, they are seeing more people asking for help for homeless prevention over rapid rehousing because of the current housing situation in Carbon County.

Problems she outlined included access to housing, affordability, cost for maintaining a home, and the increase in rental costs.

She said that in Pennsylvania, the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is currently $1,447.

“In order to afford this level of rent and utilities without paying more than 30% of income on housing, a household must earn $4,824 monthly or $57,886 annually,” Miller said. “That’s assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks per year. This level of income translates into an hourly wage of $27.83 per hour.

“When you take what the minimum wage is and the average wage ... our clients aren’t earning anywhere near that by no means.”

Commissioner Wayne Nothstein asked if that report took into consideration the cost of childcare, which Miller said it did not.

Because of this, the organization is seeing people with full-time jobs still fitting under the homeless prevention program because they can’t afford a place of their own and it’s impossible to find a place within their budget and is available.

“The available places that are out there probably have 12 or more people applying at a time,” she said.

Cathy Lamm, executive director of Family Promise of Carbon County, said that the Family Promise model is for 90 days, however she has one family there almost 300 days.

“They’re working,” she said. “They have the money, but they can’t find anything.”

Rob Nicolella, executive director of Catholic Charities, said that he compared the fair market rent from 2020 to today and rent has increased nearly 35%.

“For the fair market rent, for a two bedroom, it’s $1,507 in Carbon County,” he said.

Nicolella outlined a family budget calculator put out by The Economic Policy Institute.

“It gives a lot of those same numbers of what you have,” he told the task force.

The calculator allows for income to be broken down by family size and composition as well to provide a clearer picture.

A Harvard University study published last month also showed that homeownership is becoming “increasingly out of reach for low and moderate income renters,” Nicolella said. “Affordable housing production is stalling and ... federal housing support is not keeping pace with rising costs.”

The study goes on to say that an average household income should be approximately $126,000 to be able to afford a typical home today.

“That’s beyond 85% of the renters nationwide,” Nicolella said, adding that Catholic Charities has been trying to meet with the Panther Valley Blueprint Community to try and determine how to get funding and help with affordable housing needs; however, word is coming down of the possibility of federal funding cuts to these programs.

“We’re going to have to work collaboratively because with the minimizing of funds, I think it’s going to have to pull us together more. ... I do think we can help some people. We have to target our populations and really figure out how best to move forward.”